You already know that the invitation – to any event – will let your guests now what type of party they will be attending: formal or casual, beach or ballroom. While you want to make a statement with your invites, sometimes it’s hard to find a stylish and affordable one.

Pingg, a new online invitation company, offers beautiful e-vitations for free! Yes, that’s right, for free!

It’s so simple: Pick your occasion and then choose from hundreds of designs for the right image. (Their photos are beautiful.) Simply add your event details, guest list and click send. For a small fee you can send the e-vitation by text message. Your guests can RSVP online and there’s an event Web page to help you keep track of them. You can also add a link to your registry and upload photos and video.

While I’m still a fan of sending a more traditional (read: tangible) wedding invitation to your guests for the big day, I think Pingg e-vitations are a great source for invites for every other wedding-related party: engagement party, the shower, bachelor and bachelorette parties, rehearsal dinner, bridesmaid luncheon and post-wedding brunch.

It's common to toss petals, birdseed or blow bubbles as the newlyweds leave the ceremony.  Many of you may remember that rice was originally tossed, a traditional symbol of prosperity, but since learning that rice is harmful to birds, many couples provide birdseed for guests to toss instead.

When deciding what you want your guests to toss, think about the season or theme of your wedding.  For a spring wedding have guests toss petals or flower heads with the stems cut off.  In the summertime hand out sparklers and matches.  Colorful autumn leaves are perfect for a fall ceremony, and you can make your own (paper) snowflakes for a winter wedding.

In lieu of a traditional toss, you can supply small bells for guests to ring, bubbles to blow or streamers and flags for them to wave.  Whatever you decide to use, place them in paper cones or glassine envelopes, and have them distributed to guests as they enter the ceremony site.

You can personalize the toss holder by sealing them with a monogrammed sticker or write a note explaining to guests what they should do with the package - to toss them while you make your way up the aisle or hold onto them until you leave the ceremony site.

 

 

Martha Stewart’s new Occasions line is absolutely beautiful.  The collection is divided into several themes – seaside, water lily and floral cake - so you can coordinate all of your wedding day details from your invitation to your wedding favor.

 

And in addition to being pretty, everything is really affordable.  A set of 24 Water Lily Place Cards (above) retails for $12.99 and the Seaside Favors (below), which doubles as a place card is $19.99 for 24.

 

The complete line is available at MarthaStewartCrafts.com and at craft stores, like Michael’s.

 

 

 

And if you’re looking for unique ideas for your wedding, pick up the new Martha Stewart Weddings Collector’s Edition, filled with 270 of their favorite ideas.

Over the course of your engagement you'll probably collect pictures, paint chips, fabric swatches and a million other details.  You can either store everything in a box or bag in your parents' basement, or you can create a wedding scrapbook with the highlights of everything from the moment he proposed till the moment your plane touched down after your honeymoon.

A lot of crafty (as in arts & crafts) brides look for ways to create their own wedding details.  All you need is an idea and the right supplies and you can create everything from save-the-date cards to favors and programs.

 

I’ve written about the new wedding book, The DIY Bride: 40 Fun Projects for Your Ultimate One-of-a-Kind Wedding, before but here’s another project you may want to consider for your wedding.

 

I just love this photo save-the-date card project from the book.  It’s a very simple design, and you can get your husband involved to help you punch out photos and printed information about the wedding.

 

 

 

Another craft idea is to order a stamp or embosser with your monogram, wedding date or wedding icon and use it on a variety of wedding details – your save-the-date card, program, invitations, favor tags, menu cards and anything else you think you can stamp or emboss.  If you choose a simple design with just your names or initials you can continue using the stamp or embosser on many things in the future.  Or you can always create a second one with your mailing address and put the other one away in your wedding keepsake box.  Three Designing Women have a great selection of patterns you can choose from, or they can help you create a custom design.

 

 

 

I don’t know if I made this term up, but I like it.  A Wed-site is a wedding-related website, and it can mean one of two things:

 

1 – a website a couple creates about their wedding plans, including pictures, date and location information

 

2 – a website about wedding planning

 

For this post I’m talking about the first definition.

 

Creating a wed-site for your wedding can be both fun – a creative outlet for you – as well as informational - for your guests.  There are a lot of companies that offer wed-sites with a variety of features.

 

I just learned about a new wed-site company, Nearlyweds.com, and I have to say, their features are really cool.  In addition to the basics – telling your story (how you met, got engaged), adding photos and a guestbook – you can also create your own wedding blog, an online contact list and have guests RSVP through the site. (I do not recommend having guests RSVP to your wedding via email, but for an engagement party, bridesmaid luncheon or rehearsal dinner it’s fine.  These are more casual events.)

 

The templates on the site are awesome.  Very modern, and since they were designed by some of the most popular wedding invitation designers – Wedding Paper Divas, Rock Paper Scissors, Feterie – you can even order your invitations to match your wed-site template.  If you’re all about everything matching this is right up your alley!

 

You can sign-up for a free trial for 2 weeks, and then the charge is $49 for two years.

I know this isn’t really a wedding themed movie, but there have been thousands – and possibly millions - of weddings that have been inspired by it. I know I was.

If you’ve ever seen the movie, then you know that many father-daughter/mother-son dances have been set to Sunrise Sunset. It’s a very touching song and really appropriate for a wedding – especially parent dances.

For our wedding, I started dancing to Sunrise Sunset with my dad, and halfway thru Dave and his mom joined in. The song is appropriate for both, and we only danced to the one song, so our guests weren’t sitting down for more than a few minutes. I find that after the first few seconds of watching the parent dances the guests lose interest.

Anyway, since we’re on the topic of cultural traditions I thought this movie was appropriate for our Reel to Real series. And speaking of cultural traditions, another Jewish custom is to get married under a chuppah or wedding canopy. Some couples will have their florist create one, while others will make one from a tallis (prayer shawl).

Josey, the iVillage Love Senior Editor learned at the last minute that her chuppah had fallen through. So she and her groom decided to build one themselves. At first they were overwhelmed, but after some thought, they realized they loved the symbolism. Chuppahs symbolize the “home” the couple is building together—and, the week before their wedding, they literally built it! But first they had to figure out what supplies they would need and where to get them. Too bad Khris Cochran’s book, The DIY Bride, hadn’t come out yet.

In addition to the dozens of creative DIY projects in her book, Khris has an easy and very affordable project to create your own wedding canopy. I’ll tell you more about The DIY Bride book next week. But if you want, you can check out Khris’ site DIYBride.com to learn more.

Tomorrow’s the last day in the wedding flick series. Before I pick the movie to write about, do you have a favorite wedding film you think I should know about?

Dave and I just got back from a week in LA. We went to a beautiful wedding, which I’ll tell you all about later this week. While we were in town I visited a number of shops and came across the Bead Boutique on 3rd Street.

My mother and sister have been going there for years, and now I know why. The shop is filled with beautiful beads, charms and chains and the customer can design their own necklaces, earrings and bracelets.

The store has a number of designs to help inspire you, or you can buy one the creations made by the store's owners, Pamela and Francesca.

In addition to making something for yourself – I made a double gold chain necklace with amethyst stones – you can take a class on how to make jewelry.

For brides looking to create something special for each of their bridesmaids, I recommend making custom jewelry for each of your girls. If you don’t live in Southern California, call the store and tell them what you want to do and they can help you create something special that your ‘maids are sure to wear again and again.

And while you're there, make something to wear on your honeymoon - there's no rule that you can't buy yourself a a wedding present.



Click here for more wedding planning tips.

Brides who want to create a lot of their own wedding details end up rushing to buy things at the last minute becasue of their budget and time constraints. If you are thinking of creating your own flower arrangements - whether bouquets or centerpieces - ProFlowers offers you the best of both worlds - affordable prices and a DIY project that you can complete with ease.

Beautiful bouquets for brides and bridesmaids, centerpieces, boutonnières and corsages are available in a range of flowers and colors.

You can choose from several packages, or create your own, and the flowers are shipped directly to your door via FedEx, so all you have to do is take them out of the shipping box and walk down the aisle.

The company offers a variety of blooms so whatever season or color palette you are planning, they’ll have a collection that’s just right for you. Flowers options include: calla lilies, hydrangea, sunflowers and a variety or roses.

A lot of the packages cost under $1000, which means you can spend more money on your dress, cake, music or the honeymoon.

Are you planning on creating your own bouquet and centerpieces?

I love this idea. The bride and groom asked members of their bridal party - close friends and relatives to hold their chuppah. Since the wedding was in a park they couldn't suspend it from a ceiling or cement it into the ground. The four chosen gentlemen carried the chuppah down the aisle and stood holding it during the ceremony.

The groom built the chuppah using four bamboo poles, wire and his father’s tallis. He slipped the wire through a hole in each corner of the tallis and wrapped it tightly around the top of each pole.

If you are thinking of having your bridal party do this at your wedding, I highly recommend making sure the poles are tall enough so that the bottom of it can rest on the ground, and the tallis is high enough over the couple and officiant’s heads so they don’t bump into it.

You also want to make it comfortable for the pole bearers – they shouldn’t have to raise the pole/tallis in the air, especially if the ceremony will be more than 5-10 minutes, which most are.

Click here for instructions on how to build your own chuppah.